The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-02
LAND THAT NEEDS DRAINAGE
Thousands of Acres in Northern Indi-
ana that Could Be Made Productive.
State Geologist ThOmpson's Suggestions Re-
garding the Drainage Of the Kankakee
Swamp Region-New Facts Disclosed.

State Geologist Thompson thinks that the gas
wells bored through the drift deposits of Indiana
have fully confirmed his theory that vast
tangle of moraines runs across the State, and he
IL now getting together mass of information
on this point which nothing but the drill would
possibly have furnished. Professor Gorbey is
arranging a compendium of the facts disclosed
by the boring for gas and oil, and it will appear
in the forthcoming report OF the State Geologist.
''The study of the glacial deposits of In
DIANA" said Mr. Thompson yesterday, ''dscloses
some interesting facts in connection with the
Kankakee river and the which should be
drained by it. Many thousands of acres of land
rich any in the State lie either side of
the river. and are at present practically sub
merged on account of lack of drainage. 1t
strikes me as amazing that vast body of in
comparably valuable real estate should be al
lowed to lie useless and unsghtly. home for
frogs and turtles, ducks and snipes.
right in the heart of a great agri-
cultural State like Indiana, when
to straighten the bed of the river and drain the
whole swamp region would be a comparatively
inc xpensive and easy work. The fall of the
IA nkakee river is by no light. for, as
crooked as the stream is it's current is stiff and
and very heavy to against. The short.
sharp turns in the bed the chief obstacles to
a rapid subsistence after freshet If shortcut
channels were made, so to shorten the flow
and remove obstruction, the swamp lands would
rapidly dry out and become exceedingly valua-
BILE hay and pasture and corn lands.
1.-THE soil is a sandy muck. at present deeply
Dverlaid in places with light vegetable mold,
which would burn off when dry leaving a very
fertile know of nothing in the way of
public work, which would do more for the ap-
pearance and the value of the northern part of
the State than proper drainage of the Kanka-
kee region. The geology of this region is inter-
estinR and discoses many features of value In
the study of the glacial phenomena of past ages.
In the western part of the Kankakee the
movement Of the great ice flood was almost due
southwark shown by the well-defned stri8
found on the rock surface wherever exposed.
The cone of upheaval near Kentland has been
cut IF sharply and smoothly by the glacier and
the almost vertical strata beautifully
scratched and grooved. So the prairie of
Pulaski and Jasper counties where the Niagara
rocks occasionally come TO the surface, the
marks OF glacial action very clear The
wells sunk in all this region show singular
channels of erosion, and there interesting
out-lyers and columns. so to call Them of the
Devonian formations. left standing, but covered
by deposit of drift. Nearly all the ancient
channels have more or less silt in the form of
quick sand at some depth. and usually under a
bed of blue or gray clay. Over large part of
the west side of Pulaski county the Niagara and
waterlime rocks are but few feet under the
ground surface.
Eat Valparaiso, in Porter county, the De-
voniap shale is the uppermost rock showing
that there the erosion has not been so great
that the line of upheaval across the State has
affected the deposition of all the strata above the
Niagara group. Coming southwark, ind at
Delphi another cone thrust up through tn Q De-
vonian limestone and shales. Here too, the
tion of the great ice-stream is clearly recorded
on the uptitlted Niagara rock. The strie at
Delphi run a little south of west. showing that
the glacier took the direction OF the great rift in
the rock which now gives it's course to the chan
mel of the Wabash river.
CAT Logansport and Lafayette the glacial
lines conflicting varying from nearly due
north and south to south forty-fve degrees
west and as far south as Charlottesville these
lines are sometimes nearls due west
Another feature of the drift deposits is the
assorted clay Of various kinds found in the
strata. This clay assumes almost every consist
ency from kaon to fine silicous mari. Some
times it is a chalk or lime sediment A
careful study of these clays convinces me that
the theory of kaolin formation advanced in my
report of last year is the correct one Water
t.